Using car amp for home

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How realistic is it to use a 5000W 2ohm RMS car amp on a home outlet? I know I would need an adapter/converter to 12/14.4V, that is also strong enough to generate enough power but I'm not sure how to 'calculate' what kind of converter this would need to be.
If it would be easier to split it up into 2x separate adapters for each a 2500W 2ohm amp then that is also fine for me.

Thanks in advance
 
Your first problem is finding out the true power rating for the amp, not the "marketing" value.

True.. I could ofcourse play it safe and take a margin as well as do good research before buying the amp.

Its realistic, but at the cost of a large power supply. Personally I'd question the reliability of this route when PA amps are readily available.

I raise the question because I'm thinking about the IPAL 21 drivers, which are rated at 2500W 1 ohm. 'readily available' amps that can do this are not cheap. They cost thousands and thousands of dollars.. 5000W 2 ohm car amps however cost way less and are easily found in B-stock or second hand.


You would definitely need a car battery with a connected charger.
 
What is the value of the fuse on the power amp? You would need a power supply with a couple more amps than that..2500w divided by 14.4V = 173 amps. Most car alternators do not put out this much current, I seriously doupt that they do that much power. The wire guage for 173 Amps is 2/0 67mm^2. http://wecoconnectors.com/data_source/fichiers/wire_size_specifications.pdf . If the actually do their rated power and your power supply is very efficient, you should only need a 50 Amp 120V circuit breaker.


Like I said check the fuse!
 
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You realize that a "5000 watt" amplifier would draw over 400 amps @ 12 volt, right? You would need a second battery and alternator to run it in a car.

If you want to know how much power a mobile amplifier can deliver, then check the fuse. Power claims on mobile equipment have no connection to reality. 5000 watts is bull:shutup:.
 
With some products, it's realistic.

Yes, the current draw is excessive and yes, additional batteries and alternators are used. It's more common than you'd think. The first >1kW car amp came out in the late 80's and would indeed draw ~180 amps. It's designer shows up now and then here on the forum as user "moer".

I had a friend in the 90's who made his living producing alternators that would deliver nearly 300 amps at normal engine temp. Rectifiers were outboard and fan-cooled.

There's a local in the little town where I work who has about 10 batteries in a tray under his SUV, many kilowatts.

That said, there is definitely plenty of crap out there- beware.
 
Let's just consider your original requirement being 2500 watt per channel regardless of your speaker. You would be advised to talk to the competition vehicle audio guys, they will direct you to the best batteries to utilize for this purpose.

Mo-fi chaps use several banks of Trojan deep cycle batteries (some even banks of 2V traction batteries) with a 50 to 100 amp charger connected replenishing the spent energy between short sessions.

I am not confident that a nominally 12V vehicle set-up like what you are looking for in addition to a very hefty power supply system will hurt your pocket a lot more than a big PA system. Go talk to our car audio guys. If you are a married man your wife will feed your nuts to the cat!

I am sure you have come across the information on audio forums that the amplifier is only as good as the power supply.
 
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